It seems that the popular command-line system info tool Neofetch is dead, Jim.
The Github repo for the project was archived by its main developer last week and is now read-only, a sure sign that development has well and truly ceased to be.
Not that this is a shock.
Development on Neofetch seemed to stall a few years back as bug reports piled up, pull requests were ignored, and the developer stop replying. The last update to Neofetch was made in 2020.
I’m a big fan of Neofetch and have used it on all my installs since discovering it in 2016, showcasing it in scores of screenshots on this site and sneaking it in to my Ubuntu release videos. So naturally Neofetch made my list of the best Linux command-line tools.
Neofetch prints a static list of a computer’s key hardware specs and software packages next to a large, colourful ASCII OS logo. Informative and eye-catching, Neofetch has become a staple in Linux desktop screenshots shared online.
So even if you’ve never used Neofetch yourself you’ll surely have seen it somewhere at some point.
While though a myriad of other ‘fetch’ tools (as they’re called) predate it, Neofetch was arguably the most well-known and widely used fetch tool in the Linux community and carried in the archives of most major Linux distros.
But is this really the end?
NeoFetch alternatives
Development on Neofetch appears to have ended but the tool continues (and will likely continue) to work printing pretty-looking system stats on Linux, BSD, macOS, Windows, WSL, Haiku, your mum’s fridge, and everywhere else it runs.
But without ongoing development the tool will, in time, relay less-accurate info (some folks already report that newer CPUs and GPUs aren’t listed correctly). New distros appear, others evolve, some rebrand, new codenames emerge, and so on.
As an open-source project though nothing ever truly dies. Forks of Neofetch already exist, as do similarly-purposed fetch tools from other developers. If you use Neofetch often you may wish to look into these alternatives.
The one I see mentioned most often (at the moment) is HyFetch, a direct fork of Neofetch that’s actively maintained. It’s even packaged in the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS archives making it an easy apt install hyfetch away from obligatory overuse.
One thing to note is that HyFetch displays info using a Pride-themed colour scheme by default (it asks you to choose your preferred Pride flag when first run). You can see an OS-based colour scheme by running neowofetch instead — same tool, same info, different colours.
Other -fetch tools are also out there, and I’ve no doubt that news of Neofetch’s demise will lead to several more, so be on the look out for more alternatives!
H/T Dominic Hayes